To The Frozen Northeast?

When you work only when work is available (those of you who work for
a certain government agency know what I mean), it is easy to become
frustrated when nothing happens. You do not want people to
suffer, but you only work when they do. There is that built-in
conflict. I recently heard back on transfering from my current
region to working directly for headquarters. It is possible, but
they have no work in HQ either. I said, well then, let's just
wait on that.

In recent days, I've corresponded with a few
coworkers across the country. We are all in more or less the same
situation. Nothing happening in our field, so we are home.
I think this is a great time for us to get in touch with our churches,
our family members, and ultimately, our creator. The new year
could be busier than the last two years have been. Or it could
bring us all new jobs outside of our unnamed agency. I vote for a
job outside .

The ultimate goal of any job-search is to hear "we want you
to start immediately." I think all of us would also accept
start on day X, X being a day one week or less from the day we get the
message.

I'm doing it just like this guy. You have to make sure recruiters and HR staffers know that you are not lazy.

The purpose of this blog is not to serve as a career blog, but I still cannot forget this guy's advice.
I must say that I heard from someone about a very interesting opening
on the East Coast. I think they are looking for someone at a
higher level of skill than I am, but it sounds like a challenging,
skill-building position that would be very satisfying for at least two
or three years. As I shiver in my home office, I cannot help but
think about the temperature difference between Southern California and
the Northeast. I'm going to explore the company's site more
deeply to determine if I seriously feel that I could contribute to
their success the way that they could contribute to mine.

The
self-study Italian language is not going so well. I have not been
doing it regularly enough. I'm going to start over and be sure to
mix in some Italian when I talk to my dog. I'll buy her some "boy
snacks," our name for Sunshine cheese-flavored crackers, so I can
reward her when she understands what I say. Micah had wanted
these cheese crackers, but rejected them because they had jack and
cheddar cheese flavoring mixed together. The dog, of course,
loved them. I have a couple of special projects that I'll be
working on (uncompensated for now) on the side.